69 One Plant to Another (2)
"Milord, five thousand plants might take us a while to get there..." Xiao Qing wasn't an optimistic teacher, and without being told by Mu Qing Lang, it is almost impossible for him to know how precious is the Prairie's Banefruit Plant he grafted using three different plants.
"The fruits you gave me, I'm sure you have more than the three of them?" Mu Qing Lang questioned Xiao Qing further.
"Yes, milord, in total, there's a hundred fruits. As your subject is unsure of their usability, the plant is destroyed with only the fruit is left." Xiao Qing replied to the question faithfully.
"It's fine. The plant bears five fruits every twenty hours. If you begin right now, the seeds will yield 500 fruits in their first harvest. On your second harvest, 2,500 and on the third, it would be 12,500 fruits."
"So, arrange some farmers to start handling them now. As for the remaining flesh, deliver them to my carriage. I'm sure everyone knows where should you store the products now." Mu Qing Lang left Xiao Qing to handle the arrangement for about fifteen minutes before the Goblin Teacher returned to his side.
"Milord, the arrangement is complete. The farmers will immediately follow up with the changes and start changing the plants once the seeds are enough to fill the five fields of Prairie's Banefruit Plant." Xiao Qing came back after he's done with them.
"Great. Did the replacement for Chang Empress Poppy Plant went well without my supervision?" Mu Qing Lang continues with his barrage of questions, showing no hint to stop at all.
"Reporting to milord, the ten fields allocated for Chang Empress Poppy Plant had all been replaced with the newer and healthier poppy plant." Xiao Qing answered this question confidently. After all, he's been given the (good-to-go) sign when it comes to the Chang Empress Poppy Plant he's been cultivating since they move to Eastern Changzhou.
"Good Work. How about the herbs?" from the moment he assigned the Small Xian Pill as the second biggest currency after Eastern Sea Spiritual Pearl, Mu Qing Lang had been producing them in a large batch. Although he has no uses for them now, it was different for the others, who still benefit from both eating and keeping them.
"Milord, Except for the Prairie Herbal-Cress Plant that remained at 1,000 plots Field, the Demonic Juniper Flower and Prairie Sugar Root had three fields with a thousand plants each."
"The slower Prairie Rock Sage has five fields producing 60,000 sage leaves once every five days. As for the slowest growing Chang Peony Grass, we have 8,000 of them planted at a different period, so we can have a continuous harvest of 1,000 plants with the gap of four days once."
The report on five kinds of herbs amazed Mu Qing Lang.
As he remembered, Mu Qing Lang did not teach this Goblin Teacher on how separates the planting period to yield a continuous harvest. To be able to learn this by himself was an improvement to the Prairie's Goblin Tribe.
"Is there anything I should know for the Prairie Golden Potatoes, Chang-Er Bronze Wheat, and Mingwen Soybean Plant?" Mu Qing Lang moved to the three Staple Food production next. As the leader of Eastern Changzhou, one must make sure that they are capable of self-sustaining.
"Yes, milord." Xiao Qing loosens the bamboo backpack hanging on his back and took a bamboo basket out from one of the six-cells.
"One of the Chang-Er Bronze Wheat Plant grows exceptionally well in this harvest. I think master doesn't need Xiao Qing's explanation to notice what is so different about these wheat grains." Xiao Qing extends the bamboo basket until Mu Qing Lang's reach and awaits his master's decision.
"Hmm..." Mu Qing Lang took a pinch of the Chang-Er Wheat Grains with his fingers and started to inspect them. There was nothing different on the Wheat Grain from outside. The husk seems healthy until he used his fingers to rub the layer of dried skin off.
What was revealed later is transparent wheat grains, with a color similar to rice grain. But this exact moment made Mu Qing Lang almost drop a bead of sweat as big as a grape.
"Xiao Qing, immediately remove this plant and at least ten plants to its neighbor! No! I'll keep this basket of grains with me, quickly go and burn off the entire Chang-Er Bronze Wheat Field where this individual plant grows!" Mu Qing Lang sudden change of expression puzzled Xiao Qing, making him failed to react on command.
"NOW!" Mu Qing Lang shouts.
"Yes!" Xiao Qing immediately brings his people with him and prepare the fire to burn the entire Wheat Field where this transparent wheat grain plant grows.
"Bring me to the resting house while your director is handling the emergency." Mu Qing Lang gave his order to a human farmer nearby and had him guide Mu Qing Lang to their rest house. It was quite a shameful sight for the master of this piece of land to not know where is each building is located.
Only when he's inside Mu Qing Lang relaxed from the tensed atmosphere. Staring at the bamboo basket filled with more than two hundred milky colored Wheat Grains, Mu Qing Lang cannot help but worried about it.
"This is calcification... Luckily, I choose the Agriculture Department first for inspection from all other departments. Or else, this issue might last until the next meeting..." Mu Qing Lang is grateful with his own choice on choosing to come here first.
The wheat grain between his finger turned into powder the moment he exerts some force in his two fingers. Further inspecting them, they're nothing similar to the wheat flour except in color and powdered texture.
But in fact, the powder leans closer to the calcium gypsum, which mainly used as fertilizer and chalks. While the excess calcium will not disrupt the plant seriously, but it was an entirely different matter when it comes to human's consumption.
In a mild case, it might cause symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, and constipation, but excessive calcium in food for a long term may contribute to breast cancer, kidney stones, and weakening bones.
But at the same time, this plant gave Mu Qing Lang a hint that below the ground where this calcification plant grows, lies a rich vein of Limestone.
Putting his worry aside, Mu Qing Lang is confident that nobody else except him is more well informed in regarding of Limestone, which was one of the most problematic database records he must key them into the computer word by word.
And now, Mu Qing Lang was thankful.
The knowledge he treated as waste was actually useful in this situation. In fact, he begins blaming himself for forgetting a few essential applications of Limestone in daily life.
Such uses like manufacturing them into construction Quicklime, agricultural Neutralizing-Lime, healthcare purposed Purified-Lime Calcium, and as a part of borax-Lime used in a Blast Furnaces is just a few simple feats it can do.
"Master, the issue is solved. Luckily, the field is situated at the far end of the row of Wheat Fields, so handling it is a simple matter. Can milord explain to your subject about the reason to burn the Wheat Field into ash?" Xiao Qing came back to report. And at the same time, he asked Mu Qing Lang a question to clarify his curiosity.
"Xiao Qing, I'm sure you will learn about them if I give you more time to study them. But for now, I'll roughly explain them to you..." Mu Qing Lang started. His teaching class began with the knowledge about calcium, what does it do, and where can they be found.
Next, his explanation explores deeper into health, benefits, and excess toxicity. Of course, the description embraces both Plant Base Organism and Living Base Organism, allowing Xiao Qing to understands more about the illiteral science knowledge.
And at the end of his teaching class, Mu Qing Lang moved to the main point of his course.
"I believe that below the wheat field we burn to ashes earlier, hides the Limestone Deposit. Start moving the Wheat Field aside from that area so we can begin exploiting them." Mu Qing Lang believes that after the class with Xiao Qing, the Goblin Teacher will do everything for the sake of opening the Limestone Deposit.
"Master, Xiao Qing will immediately arrange the people to start moving the Wheat Field away from that area. But your subject still cannot visualize how amazing is that Limestone can be..." because of the lack of knowledge in this matter, Mu Qing Lang can only provide the example to Xiao Qing in the future for his clarification.
"I'm glad you're willing to accept something new.I'll teach you more so you can pass the knowledge down to the next generation." Mu Qing Lang laughed at the end of his sentence. Feeling tired from the continuous talking, he took a bottle of Perfected Herbal Solution to quench his thirst.
As the Director of Agricultural Department, how can he not have one? Mu Qing Lang took another bottle of the Herbal Solution and tossed it over to Xiao Qing.
"Milord, should your subject leads you back to the village?" Xiao Qing speaks after he finished the bottle of Herbal Solution.
"What? Who told you we're finished here? There's Prairie's Golden Potato, Mingwen Soybeans, Xian-Ren Grass, Stone Cornfruit, Yulan Maple Tree, and Greenland Firesilk Plant yet to be handled. Don't get lazy now, director..." Mu Qing Lang counted out each and every plant he yet to get their reports.
"Ah..." Xiao Qing was stunned by Mu Qing Lang's sentence. Does this mean his master is going to spend his entire day here inspecting each and every plant before leaving?
